


Want You Gone

by MelodyoftheVoid



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Badass Zim (Invader Zim), Character Death, Electrocution, Gen, Gun Violence, Hurt No Comfort, Impalement, PAK go brrr, Tall Zim (Invader Zim), Tall-ish, The Almighty Tallest Being Assholes (Invader Zim), Violence, back on my bullshit y'all, you know how it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-09
Updated: 2020-11-09
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:41:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27465088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelodyoftheVoid/pseuds/MelodyoftheVoid
Summary: Zim needs to learn to pay attention to his proximity alarms.
Relationships: Almighty Tallest Purple/Almighty Tallest Red, Dib & Gaz (Invader Zim), Dib & Zim (Invader Zim), Gaz & Zim (Invader Zim)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 61





	Want You Gone

Zim barely registered the alarm at first.

Years and years of GIR breaking various systems, Dib breaking in, and the neighborhood children playing chicken with the gnomes numbed him to the blaring sound. So, this set of flashing lights and sound didn’t even shake Zim from soldering the wires of Dib’s new glasses. The translation feature had gone haywire and he couldn’t handle hearing Dib’s butchered attempts at Irken.

Computer speaking however, caused him to stop dead in his tracks.

“Incoming Transmission From The Tallest.”

“WHAT?”

The soldering iron missed the frame and hit Zim’s hand, burning him.

“Master, The Massive Is Hailing Us.”

“Ow- motherfu- YES I HEARD THAT, but that’s not possible! It’s been years, what could they possibly want? Why would they call Zim?”

“It Might Have Something To Do With The Armada In Earth’s Orbit.”

“ **WHAT**?! A-answer the call.”

The screen burst to life, and for the first time in five years, crimson and violet eyes glared back at him, that old instinct to stand tall and salute almost getting the better of Zim. His Earthen attire feeling suddenly like lead. Anxious claws gripped the hem of the hoodie.

“Ah, so you’re still alive then,” Purple leered, “I would’ve thought that monkey you were always fighting would’ve dissected you by now”

Red lightly smacked his partner, bored expression never changing. But there was a flicker of excitement in his eyes.

“Pur, focus. We called for a reason, remember?”

Zim perked his antenna up, “I don’t imagine it has to do with the fact that you’re… here. In Earth’s orbit.”

Purple clapped slowly.

“Very good Zim, we just wanted to check in on our _favorite invader_ since we finished Operation Impending Doom 2. We ran out of planets to conquer so…”

Red cut Purple off, grinning slightly.

“We’ll be seeing you shortly.”

“Wait what-“

The signal cut, leaving Zim staring at a blank screen. For a moment he thought maybe, maybe this wasn’t real. Maybe this was all just a horrid nightmare and any minute he’d wake up! Yes. Yes, that had to be it.

“Dib Is At The Door. No, Wait. He Just Broke It Down.”

The pain that shot up his arm as he slammed it on the console told Zim that no. This was real.

“Blasted filthy creature, could he not simply _wait?_ ”

“Apparently Not.”

“Oh, quiet you.”

Zim scrambled to the elevator, hands pulling at his antennae to attempt to muffle the sound of oncoming doom. He tapped his foot, willing the damned contraption to go up faster. Just as he popped out of the trash can, a familiar hand grabbed at his collar, slamming him into a wall.

“Zim what the hell?! I thought we had a truce!? I fucking trusted you!”

Waving his hands, Zim tried to get out a sentence, anything to stop Dib being mad.

“Dib let me explain-“

“THERE IS AN ARMADA IN OUR ATMOSPHERE WHAT COULD THERE BE TO EXPLAIN?!”

“ZIM DIDN’T KNOW!”

Dib took a step back, letting Zim back to his feet. Eyes still full of furious tears.  
  
“Zim- what do you mean you didn’t know.”

“I haven’t spoken to the empire since… since that time after the florpus. They just called me minutes ago. Dib-friend, I promise you I did not know.”

“Huh.”

Dib ran a hand through his hair, inhaling sharply.

“Well. Well shit. What do we do?”

The two stood, looking to the other for answers that didn’t exist.

“Zim doesn’t know. There’s not much that I have prepared. We dismantled most of the weapons…”

“That we did.”

“Hey idiots, you going to stand around bickering all day?”

Gaz shouted from the doorway, trusty baseball bat in hand.

“You in to bash some heads?”

Dib shrugged, “Eh fuck it. Blaze of glory was always more our style anyway.”

Zim hesitated, wringing his hands together.

“I don’t… I don’t know if that’s the best idea. Maybe we can reason with the tallest? Zim is taller now, so maybe they can be convinced to leave…”

Gaz set a hand on Zim’s shoulder, “You know that they won’t. They’re egotistical assholes who just want to see you suffer.”

“Exactly, even if we can’t win, we can give them some hell. For old time’s sake.”

“Very well then. COMPUTER!”

“Yes? Are You Going Through With The Suicide Plan?”

Dib muttered, “Wow, Zim. Your computer really knows how to put it.”

“Dib, you were just talking about going out in a blaze of glory.”

“Ok but Gaz he didn’t have to put it like that-“

“ENOUGH! Computer, bring up the water lines and set them to burst when the first Irkens touch down. Gir, go have fun. Show them all the tacos you want. Minimoose-“

“Nyah!”

“Minimoose you frighten me. But go ahead. Just don’t stay out for too long.”

The Massive hung in the air, obscuring even the sun in its enormity, casting the city below into darkness. The ever-grinning face of the empire’s logo the only source of illumination. Ships swarmed, yet no Irkens left them. They merely hovered in place. It sent chills up his spine.

“Zim, why are they just…sitting there?”

Dib turned to him, laser gun in hand.

“I don’t know Dib-thing. And I don’t like it any more than you d-“

A small sting on his neck the only warning before his vision went white, electricity arcing up Zim’s back. He hit the pavement. A rush of shouting and cries surrounded him, intermixed Irken, English, and Spanish cutting into each other in a muddled mess.

By the time his eyes finally registered the world around him, he was bound, heavy bolted cuffs around his wrists. The same as the ones from his existence evaluation. Huh. Blinking, the fuzzy forms in front of Zim came into focus. A writhing Dib and Gaz in similar cuffs to his, both of them swearing profusely. The Tallest stood behind the pair, staring dead at him. It struck Zim that the tallest didn’t tower over him as much as they had before.

Odd.

“Let us GO you mutated stick bug-“

“Quiet,” Red hissed at the humans, “or we’ll make you be quiet.”

“Good luck with that buddy,” Gaz spat, “we’ve been trying to get him to shut up for years.”

“Hey-“

“I said _quiet_ ,” Red brought a PAK leg far too close to Dib’s face for his liking.

Purple decided that it was time to cut in, clasping his hands together and curling his mouth in what would be a smile if not for the menace in his eyes.

“Ah Zim, so glad you decided to join us! Sorry for the last-minute notice but we thought you’d like the surprise.”  
  


It took a minute for Zim to process the words from his two former leaders.

“Why. Why are you here?”

“Like we told you Zim, we ran out of planets to invade. But since you’ve kept this one nice and pristine… ish for us, we’ll let you have what you wanted! We’ll let you be a _real invader_ and let you take the credit for Earth. All you have to do is get rid of these two humans!”

“It’s an easy task, even you could do it.”

“They look kinda squishy anyways.”

The cuffs unlocked, allowing Zim to stand upright.

“I- I don’t-“

“Look, we’ll even get you officially reencoded as an invader again. You can go and go out take the rest of the backwater planets out there since you have a knack for finding them and do some good for the empire for once.”

“No, no I don’t want to.”

“You don’t _want_ to. Seriously,” Purple pointed at Dib, “This one tried to kill you for so long, you really can’t just put it out of its big-headed misery? I doubt anyone would really miss it anyway.”

“My HEAD IS NOT-“

“Look at it. Pathetic really. Although I think the purple one is feral.”

Gaz bit at Red in response.

Zim shook his head, “No, I don’t follow your orders anymore, I’m not a part of the empire, you told me me that!”

“It seems a defective moron like you can’t even prioritize what needs to be done. Oh well.”

Red snapped his fingers. Dib and Gaz looked to him frightened before lasers burrowed matching holes between their eyes. Amber going dull in seconds, bodies hitting the ground in unison. It happened so fast, so… quietly.

Neither Dib nor Gaz were ever quiet. Both always making some noise, some movement.

Now all was still.

Zim stared vacantly at the pool of blood spreading across the asphalt. It burned once it hit his skin. He’d fallen to his knees at some point. The elites chuckled at the sight of viscous tears, one poked at him to see if he was broken.

“Guess he was defective as they say, true Irkens don’t cry.”

Red and Purple watched Zim’s sorrow, laughing hysterically. The whole armada it seemed was laughing at him.

When was it not.

The laughter from the two dictators trailed off, their giggles fueling the other.

“Well that was boring. What kind of weak species can’t take a laser blast to the head?”  
  


“Most species Purple. Most species.”  
  
“Haha yeah. So, what should we do with this dump? Just make it a trash heap for real?”

“It’s close enough. Look at the state of this place, how anything can live here is beyond me. Probably best to sweep the whole planet. No use in keeping these humans around.”

“I don’t know, maybe we could make them perform for us? Make ‘em fight to the death? That would be fun!”

“But we’d have to feed them.”

“True, true.”

Zim barely registered the bickering voices, all he could feel, think, understand was that his family, the life he’d built away from the empire was gone. And why? For what purpose? Just to spite him? After he’d done what the empire had wanted for so long and left them alone?

Twin pairs of amber eyes stared up at Zim. They’d died for this planet, they’d loved it, been willing to fight until their last breath even despite his failure. He would not let that love be in vain.

“No.”

The two dictators turned; eyes narrowed at the little defect still clutching the warm bodies of the humans.

“What do you mean no?”

“Zim. Said. No.”

Fighting the shocks still wracking his body, he took a claw to the small implant on his neck, ripping it off. The crunch of the electronics under his boot a lovely sound.

“You will not get away with taking what is Zim’s.”

Zim felt himself lift up on his PAK legs, towering over the Tallest, still looking at him vaguely bemused.

“You said this planet was mine, mine to conquer, mine to destroy. You never cared about this place. So, you don’t get to have it. Earth. Is. **Zim’s**.”

“And what are you going to do about it,” Purple clicked his tongue, the elites around Zim raised their guns, “You’re surrounded by the best of the best, you’re alone, we have the whole planet in our grasp. So, what do you really think you can do?”

Zim giggled, letting his trademark grin stretch over his face.

“What a defective moron like me does best, Purple. What I’ve always done. Kill and destroy.”

With a snarl, Zim drove a leg through the torso of the nearest elite, piercing the PAK and allowing himself to drop down. Lasers firing where he’d been only seconds before. He let a feral snarl leave his lips and launched forward.

The next closest guard met a similar fate, though Zim took pleasure in raking his claws across the smug asshole’s face. Watching the blood bead up like the tears he’d been mocked for.

In no time at all the rest of the squad was dispatched, the sheer shock of Zim’s brutality giving Zim all the upper hand he needed to grab a gun and unload. Making sure each and every PAK had at least one gaping hole in it. The blood staining the previously white hoodie a brilliant pink, overtaking the crimson that stained it.

With careful, measured steps. Zim advanced towards the Tallest. Finger twitching on the trigger.

Red placed himself in front of Purple, pulling his own PAK legs out.

“Zim. Stand down.”

“Hmmm, what was it you said earlier? That I was incapable of taking orders? I don’t think I will.”

“Zim you are an Irken. You would openly commit treason, brazenly, against your home. For this place? “

Zim stopped, the piece of him that had never lost its loyalty worming in doubt. Memories of escaping to the surface with Skoodge, of meeting Miyuki for the first time, training with the best of the best, becoming an invader, the thrill of being a part of the collective.

It was a nice picture of what he’d thought his life was. What it should’ve been.

But that wasn’t really what it was like.

No, he’d never been a part of the collective. Never a real invader. Never taken seriously. He’d have to be, well. He’d have to be where he was during the florpus. Utterly in denial out of fear of the reality crushing him.

His whole life he was the fuck up of all fuck ups as Dib liked to put it. So desperate for any scrap of attention, that he killed two tallests, countless other Irkens just to be seen. To have his contributions recognized not his height. The endless bullying from Red and Purple, from their time in training to each and every call, the not so subtle jabs at how useless, pathetic, worthless he was.

How he was better off dead.

That’s why he’d been sent out anyway.

To die. For the empire.

That wasn’t what home was, what family meant. That was blind loyalty never earned.

Zim exhaled softly.

“Irk was never my home. It just took a long time for me to learn that.”

Red’s eyes widened; Purple started to pull out his PAK legs.

“You destroyed my home.”

Zim pulled the trigger.

**Author's Note:**

> Idk man. I listened to "I AM NOT A MORON" a while back and this kinda popped into my mind. So. This was a thing. Needed to get back to canon-ish land after so long in royalty au world.


End file.
